An Organizer’s Guide to Confront Pretrial Risk Assessment Tools in Decarceration Campaigns

Risk assessment tools (RATs) are decision-making rubrics that make predictions; they utilize a multitude of tools to make predictions about a defendant’s statistical likelihood, or “risk,” of not returning to court or being rearrested if released. Ultimately, RATs greatly influence the decisions of judges, magistrates, and pretrial service departments. However, civil rights, community, and legal organizations have publicly opposed the use of risk assessment in pretrial decision-making, for they have been proven to perpetuate racial disparities and do nothing to reduce the numbers of people jailed pretrial. This guide provides tools for opposing RATs, and an analysis that opposition to them is one part of a larger organizing strategy to end pretrial incarceration and mass supervision.